Catholic legal group ‘hopes and prays’ Supreme Court will side with Haitian, Syrian migrants
Caroline MolloyThe Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), which works closely with the U.S. bishops, told EWTN News that it “hopes and prays” the U.S. Supreme Court will order President Donald Trump’s administration to keep protections in place for Syrian and Haitian migrants.
On March 16, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit that challenges the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for migrants from Haiti and Syria.
The court ordered that the protections will remain in place for the time being, until the justices make a final decision. This prevents deportations while the case is litigated. The court will hear oral arguments in the last week of April.
More than 300,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians are protected from removal based on the TPS status but would lose the ability to live and work in the United States if it is ultimately terminated.
“CLINIC hopes and prays that the Supreme Court recognizes that the administration cannot abuse its executive authority and play with human lives,” Elnora Bassey, a policy attorney for CLINIC, told EWTN News.
Bassey said “this constant back-and-forth” between the administration and the courts has put migrants who rely on those protections “in a state of despair as their future remains unknown.”
“The administration’s lawless attempts to interfere with humanitarian protections for immigrants must come to an end, and they must adhere to the legal process set in place to ensure the integrity of that process remains intact,” Bassey said.
“Immigrants, just like all other human beings, ought to be treated with dignity and respect, and the administration must follow the law of the land and provide humanitarian protections rather than disregard the plain language of the statute to protect vulnerable human beings,” she said.
